7 Quick Takes (Vol. 15)

My last Quick Takes…on a Sunday that is. I’ve decided to move my 7 Quick Takes Posts to Fridays like the rest of the Catholic blogging world. This also means I’ll be able to better utilize the #7QT hashtag and hopefully, better join in the 7 Quick Takes community. I’m always reading other bloggers’ Quick Takes a day or 2 before I post mine. But no more.

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Belated Happy 4th! I spent the holiday with family, first at my grandmother’s for a family get-together that was sadly under-attended and then with most of my immediate family to see fireworks. QUESTION:why do we say “happy 4th of July” more than “happy Independence Day”? Something I read online in the last few days made me realize that we don’t really say “Independence Day” anymore. Food for thought, if nothing else.

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Did you hear about Lumen Fidei? Okay, what Catholic hasn’t heard of Pope Francis’ first encyclical…. It was begun by Benedict and was released on Friday. You read the whole thing here. I started but I didn’t get very far. Encyclicals have always had that effect on me, which is really quite sad seeing as how they’re a great source of information on Church teaching. I think I should make myself read this. It’s not too long right?

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St. Anthony is one my most prayed to saints because I often lose things. Most recently, I noticed I was missing my 4 year plan. An amazing 4 year plan my really amazing professor made for me last semester. 😦 I know I brought it home, but now it’s missing. I realize I haven’t seen it in weeks and I have no idea where it is. I’ve been considering a St. Anthony novena. It’s also crossed my mind that maybe this a sign that I’m not supposed to be so plan-focused or perhaps not supposed to be so set on being an education major but let myself explore other possibilities.

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Speaking of Saints, I stumbled on a really cool site with an alphabetical listing of patronages for saints. For example, click on C and you can see topics from “cab drivers” to “Czechoslovakia”. Click on one of those and you can see the saints who are revered as patrons for that cause. Through this, I think I’ve found some new go-to saints: St. Alphonsus Liguori patron saint against scrupulosity, and St. John the Apostle patron saint of editors, writers, and against foot problems (he was also the beloved disciple).

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I’m planning a blog makeover. I’m thinking of doing a new theme and adding some menu buttons towards the top to make it easier to see posts that fit a specific category. For example, I could create a button at the top that when clicked on would show all my Quick Takes posts in order from newest all the way back to the first.

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A new book. One thing I need to add right away is a book to my GoodReads widget to the right. I’ve started reading a book on St. Kateri Tekakwitha, which I will hopefully have done in time to write the review for her feast day, July 14th. Well, technically it won’t be her feast day because it’s a Sunday. But if it was another day of the week it would be Kateri’s first feast day as a saint. She was canonized last October. I half-stayed up to watch it, if you want you can read about that here. (Wow! This was only my 2nd post. Does it show?)